Scumbag!

[tuglet]

Just came out of Asda to find some scumbag has reversed into the front of my Roadster. Bumper has a small split and front number plate and plinth are a bit cracked, but all glass and bulbs are okay. Worst thing is a corner of the bonnet is riding a bit high which looks naff. I've tried to manipulate it back down but it's making very little difference. Any thoughts on how to straighten it out?

[MX-5 Lazza]

A picture or 2 would help...

[205gtinut]

tuglet said:

Just came out of Asda to find some scumbag has reversed into the front of my Roadster. Bumper has a small split and front number plate and plinth are a bit cracked, but all glass and bulbs are okay. Worst thing is a corner of the bonnet is riding a bit high which looks naff. I've tried to manipulate it back down but it's making very little difference. Any thoughts on how to straighten it out?

Bloody annoying isn't it! That's why I would never take my '5 to a supermarket!! Some pics would help to be fair......

[Mr POD]

tuglet said:

Just came out of Asda to find some scumbag has reversed into the front of my Roadster. Bumper has a small split and front number plate and plinth are a bit cracked, but all glass and bulbs are okay. Worst thing is a corner of the bonnet is riding a bit high which looks naff. I've tried to manipulate it back down but it's making very little difference. Any thoughts on how to straighten it out?

Ask Asda for CCTV footage, fill in the form from DVLA to match Number plate to owners details, contact police and send Bill for damage.

[MX-5 Lazza]

Mr POD said:

tuglet said:

Just came out of Asda to find some scumbag has reversed into the front of my Roadster. Bumper has a small split and front number plate and plinth are a bit cracked, but all glass and bulbs are okay. Worst thing is a corner of the bonnet is riding a bit high which looks naff. I've tried to manipulate it back down but it's making very little difference. Any thoughts on how to straighten it out?

Ask Asda for CCTV footage, fill in the form from DVLA to match Number plate to owners details, contact police and send Bill for damage.

I parked in a leisure centre carpark once, deliberately directly in line with a camera knowing that if anything happened to the car it would all be caught on film. When I went back to the car there was a big dent in the side where someone had clearly reversed into it. I went in and asked to see the security film and was directed to the security officer. When I told him I'd parked where the camera could see the car he said "camera? what camera???". It seems they were fitted when the place was built but had never actually been plugged in and there was no recording equipment! The security guy said he'd worked in a number of places including supermarkets and that they rarely have any recording equipment and when the did it was usually of such poor quality that it was hard to even make out the make of car let alone the numberplate!!!
So give it a go, you might have more luck but don't get your hopes up

[tuglet]

MX-5 Lazza said:

A picture or 2 would help...

It was too dark when I got home last night, and when I left for work this morning. Will get the wife to take some today while it's light enough.

[tuglet]

Mr POD said:

tuglet said:

Just came out of Asda to find some scumbag has reversed into the front of my Roadster. Bumper has a small split and front number plate and plinth are a bit cracked, but all glass and bulbs are okay. Worst thing is a corner of the bonnet is riding a bit high which looks naff. I've tried to manipulate it back down but it's making very little difference. Any thoughts on how to straighten it out?

Ask Asda for CCTV footage, fill in the form from DVLA to match Number plate to owners details, contact police and send Bill for damage.

Apparently ASDA can't let me see the CCTV under the data protection act. I would need to report the incident to the police and they would request the CCTV footage. To be honest, the police are busy enough without involving them in a car park ding, even if they were willing to get involved.

The damage is fairly minor. I was planning on replacing the nose cone as it's full of holes where the number plate plinth attaches, and I quite fancy a stick on plate. This has just hastened the inevitable.

[tuglet]

MX-5 Lazza said:

Mr POD said:

tuglet said:

Just came out of Asda to find some scumbag has reversed into the front of my Roadster. Bumper has a small split and front number plate and plinth are a bit cracked, but all glass and bulbs are okay. Worst thing is a corner of the bonnet is riding a bit high which looks naff. I've tried to manipulate it back down but it's making very little difference. Any thoughts on how to straighten it out?

Ask Asda for CCTV footage, fill in the form from DVLA to match Number plate to owners details, contact police and send Bill for damage.

I parked in a leisure centre carpark once, deliberately directly in line with a camera knowing that if anything happened to the car it would all be caught on film. When I went back to the car there was a big dent in the side where someone had clearly reversed into it. I went in and asked to see the security film and was directed to the security officer. When I told him I'd parked where the camera could see the car he said "camera? what camera???". It seems they were fitted when the place was built but had never actually been plugged in and there was no recording equipment! The security guy said he'd worked in a number of places including supermarkets and that they rarely have any recording equipment and when the did it was usually of such poor quality that it was hard to even make out the make of car let alone the numberplate!!!
So give it a go, you might have more luck but don't get your hopes up

I can relate to that. We pay the landlord at one of our sites an annual "security" fee which is supposed to pay for the maintenance and 24/7 monitoring of a state of the art external CCTV system. We were broken in to a few weeks ago, and when we asked to see the video footage it was absolutely useless. Too dark, very grainy, and shot from too far a distance. The guy could have stopped and waved at the camera and we'd still have no idea what he looked like.

[Mr POD]

tuglet said:

Mr POD said:

tuglet said:

Just came out of Asda to find some scumbag has reversed into the front of my Roadster. Bumper has a small split and front number plate and plinth are a bit cracked, but all glass and bulbs are okay. Worst thing is a corner of the bonnet is riding a bit high which looks naff. I've tried to manipulate it back down but it's making very little difference. Any thoughts on how to straighten it out?

Ask Asda for CCTV footage, fill in the form from DVLA to match Number plate to owners details, contact police and send Bill for damage.

Apparently ASDA can't let me see the CCTV under the data protection act. I would need to report the incident to the police and they would request the CCTV footage. To be honest, the police are busy enough without involving them in a car park ding, even if they were willing to get involved.

The damage is fairly minor. I was planning on replacing the nose cone as it's full of holes where the number plate plinth attaches, and I quite fancy a stick on plate. This has just hastened the inevitable.

Do not let them get off with it. Contact police and make sure ASDa do not delete footage until they have seen it.

[tuglet]

MX-5 Lazza said:

A picture or 2 would help...

Here we go:



Apologies for the crappy camera phone picture. You can just about make out where the bonnet isn't shutting properly at the passenger side. Which is odd as it was the driver's side that that seems to have taken the brunt of the impact.

[MX-5 Lazza]

Hard to tell from the picture but the shut lines around the bonnet look fine except for that bit above the bumper. That suggests to me that it's the bumper that's out of shape rather than the bonnet. I could be wrong though, like I say, just just how it looks from the picture.

[tuglet]

MX-5 Lazza said:

Hard to tell from the picture but the shut lines around the bonnet look fine except for that bit above the bumper. That suggests to me that it's the bumper that's out of shape rather than the bonnet. I could be wrong though, like I say, just just how it looks from the picture.

Just taken a couple more pics:

Passenger side shut lines around the head light look fine



but driver's side looks like the head light has been shoved backwards.



Shut line between front edge of bonnet and bumper widens from left to right.



I think you could be right Lazza. Looks like the bumper has been hit hard, forcing the headlight back, and the bumper hasn't returned to its original position. I thought that being plastic, the bumper wouldn't move or deform, and assumed it must have been the bonnet that was knackered. How easy should it be to pull the head light forward?

[MX-5 Lazza]

The headlight is easy. It's a thin metal cover held on by a couple of screws.
Pop the headlights up and you'll see a couple of screws on the sides holding the plastic cover on. Take this off and you'll see the screws holding the headlamp cover on. You might find that you don't need to undo the screws at all, just remove the plastic cover and try giving it a bit of a tug.

[tuglet]

MX-5 Lazza said:

The headlight is easy. It's a thin metal cover held on by a couple of screws.
Pop the headlights up and you'll see a couple of screws on the sides holding the plastic cover on. Take this off and you'll see the screws holding the headlamp cover on. You might find that you don't need to undo the screws at all, just remove the plastic cover and try giving it a bit of a tug.

Nice one. I'll give this a try and let you know how I get on. Thanks for the help.

[tuglet]

Well, I spent several hours over the weekend trying to manipulate the bonnet and headlamp so that the shut lines are all even again. And got absolutely nowhere. If anything, I've made it slightly worse.

Is there any chance that getting hit in a supermarket carpark could knock my chassis out of shape? How hard an impact would be required to damage the chassis? The car seems to drive straight and true, and the damage seems fairly superficial. Is there any test or measurement I can do at the roadside to check for chassis damage?

Apologies for all the questions. I'm planning on "improving" the car over the next few years but I don't want to throw money at it if it's fundamentally flawed. I was planning new shocks and springs and a four-wheel alignment early next year but I'm not sure now.

[MX-5 Lazza]

I don't think you'd bend the chassis without doing far more damage to the bumper. More likely the mounting points for the bumper have been bent a bit to push it out of alignment. There are a couple of points where it mounts to each wing, the struts you can see under the bumper and the mounts that you can see under the bonnet.

[tuglet]

MX-5 Lazza said:

I don't think you'd bend the chassis without doing far more damage to the bumper. More likely the mounting points for the bumper have been bent a bit to push it out of alignment. There are a couple of points where it mounts to each wing, the struts you can see under the bumper and the mounts that you can see under the bonnet.

That's reassuring, thanks. I'll checkout the bumper mounting points.